Kitchen, it's been rough..

Dear Kitchen,

It's been really hard this week. First the coffee maker dies, now the cheese grater. I am afraid it is too far along in the Christmas shopping season to go and splurge on you to fill your cabinets and drawers with nice, new *preferrably* Kitchenaid appliances and gadgets. Though, I do not believe I will make it without these things for another 16 days until I open new *surprise* things. They say things happen in threes, I can only hope it is not the fridge next because I cannot afford one of those for sure. Kitchen, all will be well soon. I promise.

Love,
The one who slaves in your room

On a lighter note, I found some matches of these while cleaning behind Will's crib.

Rest In Peace

Dearest Coffee Pot,

I loved you. At the hands of my own flesh and blood you died. Will wanted to "cook" with you and didn't know his own strength. We have had a good, long 4 years with you. You have provided me with much comfort and pleasure in the mornings and, quite often, the afternoons. You matched my kitchen appliances. You were dirty because you were so frequently used. You are dear to my heart. But alas, all good things come to an end some time. I am just thankful I was not here to bear witness to your death. Tomorrow will be the "new normal" and I will go out and purchase a new, probably more expensive coffee maker. Just know that you were loved for the short time that I had you. Rest in peace dear one.

Your Adoring Fan,
The one who uses creamer

so, I am a Christmas Tree skirt snob..

I am a snob about quite a few things but I never thought one could be so particular about a Christmas tree skirt. I have had this old one from who knows when. It's been around probably a lot longer than I have and I love that it reminds me of home and when I was little. I do, however, feel the need to make my own home so I am on a mission to find a nice one. I want very specific colors. No green or gold or red. I want blue and silver. Strange, I know. I may put up with some other colors as long as the others are not dominate. Annabelle and I went shopping Saturday and I can tell that she is going to be the one that enjoys that with me in future years. She helped me decide that I did not like any of the ones they had to offer at any given store.



As far as school goes, we are slowly adding more pages from our books and I have mapped out how many pages we need to do to keep Abby on track. She has gotten so much better at sitting and working quietly. She makes me proud. I am really liking this cheap language arts book I got at Sams Club. I may stick with it next year, who knows! Wes likes it too and he is pretty darn picky being the homeschooler that he is. I think we might be doing some work through the Christmas break as not to get off our groove and we have a long way to go. We started the school year all over again in October so we are a couple months behind. Also, I think we'll be going to DasCHE next year instead of SALT. This is a big deal. I am comfy in my co-op. I have made friends but SALT is moving to Camp El Har and I totally do not want to drive there every week. Oh well. *sigh* I am glad Abby has lots of friends in DasCHE. :-)

frogs and snails and puppy dog tails

I love having a boy. He is so refreshing after having two girls. I love my girls but they are both needy and have to be involved in everything. I like that Will is happy just playing in dirt or water, or whatever. It is nice. And he flashes his smile and everyone talks to him. He gets a lot of attention. I love him.

What are little boys made of?
What are little boys made of?
Frogs and snails and puppy dog tails,
that's what little boys are made of.

My lessons got a little more complex this week as I mapped out our work last night. Wes and I sat down and made a few objectives. Here is what we are doing:

Abby
Math- multiplying 2 and 3 digit numbers with decimals, timed math skills
Reading- When Zachary Beaver Came to Town
Writing- She is doing brainstorming, a rough & final draft and illustrating a paper on "why the world would be different without tv? Good? Bad?"
Language Arts- Grammar and vocabulary
Art- making stamps in class for some note cards

Annabelle
Number-9
Letters- M, N and O
Learning about Indians and will have a "feast" in class Wednesday
Painted a picture about her favorite thing she did this week

It's not complex. We hit a few snags today. Mondays are hard especially after such a fun weekend. Abby got to go to Great Wolf lodge where they have a huge indoor waterpark. She spent a couple of days there so she was pretty waterlogged and tired when she came home. So, I am learning a bit with this whole preparing objectives thing. I hope I am getting better. We are all learning together. I think the most difficult thing for me is juggling the usual household things and schoolwork. It's hard for me to seperate the two. We'll get through this!

what...?

There is something so totally wrong with this picture. Yep, they are all mismatched.

elusivity

Okay, so that's not a word. I won't be teaching Abby words like strategery or ignorarrogance. But I have been a bit elusive. Someone stopped me at church and said I hadn't written all week. There are 2 reasons for that:
1. I was at a conference for pastoral/leadership staff for several days.
2. No one comments on my posts so I have no idea you are reading it.

Please, follow and I love to see your comments! It makes me think I am not just writing to myself. :-) Wait, I might be..but you are reading this, so I am not just writing to myself...right?

So as far as this past week is concerned, I am afraid I was a miserable failure. Well, I just had bad timing in starting all of this. I had the Trunk or Treat thing last weekend, then I had bunches of housework following that. We got some stuff done Monday-Wednesday. And just when I was in the groove, the conference started Thursday, so the kids went o Miss Donna's a.k.a their favorite place in the world and they did some work there. My conference was awesome. With the ministry that I have, it's hard to get away some times and just worship the Lord. I truly had one of those heart filling, mountain-top type experiences. I needed it because burnout happens so easily. If you've never heard Francis Chan or Matt Chandler speak, I would encourage you to listen to a sermon or two online. Wow. Anyway, back to church today and we shall have a productive week this week hopefully now that everything has calmed down. I will leave you with a picture or two (or more) for fun.

Will working on his times tables.
My Abby girl
Conference fun-ness